This is almost comical – if it’s a 1-run game, the easy bet is that the Cubs are going to lose. After dropping a 5-4 decision to the Phillies on Thursday, the Cubs dropped a 2-1 decision to the Ranger son Friday night in Texas. What a joke. How bad can you get in 1-run games? The Cubs are now 5-10 in 1-run games, not a good sign for a team that is desperately searching for a post-season spot. At 19-24, the Cubs continue to play ho-hum baseball. They are 6 games back of the Cards and 5.5 games back of the Reds in the wild card race.

Ryan Theriot was the only Cubs player with more than 1 hit. The Cubs squandered another 1st and 3rd, nobody out scoring chance in the 2nd inning. Although they scored a run on Geovany Soto’s double play, that was the end of the threat. It would also be the only run that the Cubs scored in the game. Not good.

Ted Lilly pitched well — 6 2/3 innings – 2 ER on 6 hits and 3 walks with 4 K’s. He had only 1 bad inning – the 4th – where he gave up a leadoff single to Ian Kinsler who eventually made it to 3rd base on the play after errors by Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot. Vladmir Guerrero’s double plated Kinsler and then Guerrero came around to score the go-ahead run on Nelson Cruz’s RBI double. That would be all the scoring in the game.

Carlos Zambrano pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the Cubs, giving up just 1 hit without any runs. Using only 2 pitchers helped get the much-maligned Cubs’ bullpen a little extra rest.